Floyd Landis Takes Chicago

The Floyd Landis Tour de Innocence traveling road show hit Chicago this weekend with events on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening. Friday night, an art auction was held at the H. Marion Framing Gallery in Glenview, Illinois. Saturday afternoon’s townhall meeting was held at the Wilmette Theatre in downtown Wilmette, Illinois, and a dinner with Floyd Landis was held Saturday evening at EJ’s Place, also in Wilmette. Earlier this week, I talked with Landis’ spokesman, Michael Henson, and he told me that seeing Arnie Baker present his slide show in person has a greater impact than reading it online. But we’re getting a bit ahead of the story.

For all the ranting I’ve done over the last 7 months (and it never ceases to amaze me how much there is to rant about), I’d never met or spoken to Floyd before this afternoon. I’ve talked to people who have, and to a person, everyone says how easy-going and personable he is. Well, they’re right. Landis is easy-going and personable. But he’s also a determined person, and at the moment that determination is being channeled into the fight to clear his name.

My first meeting with him was in a coffee shop about three doors down from the Wilmette Theatre, where the Saturday afternoon benefit was held. Also there were reporters for MSN, one of the Chicago papers, and the Associated Press. The three reporters were talking to Landis, asking him a number of questions, very likely many that he’s heard before. And the grilling was, shall we say, challenging at times.

Landis kept cool and handled the reporters’ questions gracefully, though at times it appeared that maybe one or two of the questions may have made him a little uncomfortable. But Landis has a quick wit, and in responding to one question about his initial reaction and comments in the early days of the scandal, he shot back, “Let me ask you this: If I came out and acted like a doping expert, how would that have looked?”

Indeed. If, in those early days, Landis had been able to glibly answer questions about doping the way an expert could, that would have looked pretty suspicious. More so than someone who really didn’t have an answer to give. And one must also remember that Landis and his defense team didn’t see any of the lab’s data for 6 weeks after word first leaked about his alleged positive test.

Next came the event, itself, where Dr. Arnie Baker presented his latest version of the “Wiki Defense” slide show to a crowd of approximately 150 people. Prior to the event, I spoke to Dr. Baker briefly, and he told me that the arguments shown in the slide show are just 4 of about 60 arguments that the Landis defense is prepared to use during the hearings in May. And he mentioned that these are not even the strongest of arguments. The Landis defense is holding their best cards close to their chest, so as not to tip their hand to the other side.

Baker isn’t just whistling Dixie about this. He showed me the table of contents to the ever-growing document that contains all of their arguments. I can tell you that what he stated about the number of arguments is correct. There do seem to be at least 60, or perhaps even more, listed.

The Wiki Defense slide show contained no new information since Baker added slides covering the pressure reading for the A sample and a few other items. In discussing the pressure readings, Baker noted that the manufacturer’s documentation for the mass spectrometer indicates that if the machine is run at too high a pressure, damage could occur that would affect the results of not only the current test, but all tests going forward.

Also of note, Baker discussed one sample number which had originally been thought to be a typo for Landis’ sample on Stage 17. It turns out the number actually belonged to another rider whose sample was also tested after Stage 17. Who that rider might be is not known. Baker could not say whether the sample belonged to Landis or not. Given this information, Baker said, it’s hard to be sure if the sample in question does or doesn’t belong to Floyd Landis.

Baker estimates that he’s spent between 1300 and 1400 hours going over the lab documentation, and he says he’s still finding new areas of concern in the data. When asked how the decision was made to put the lab documentation and Baker’s slide show out for all to see, Baker replied, “The damage had already been done. We didn’t see any downside to putting the information out there.”

Henson added, “We put everything out there in order to be transparent. We’re also hoping that the material can help educate the public and raise the level of discourse.”

During the question and answer session, Landis was asked to explain the tactics he and his team employed during Stage 17. “It was the only way I could win the Tour,” he replied. “We calculated that the guys in 2nd through 4th places wouldn’t work together to pull me back or that they would wait for other teams to do the work. But the other teams hesitated. I really didn’t think that they’d give me 9 minutes.”

When asked at what point he knew he would win the Tour, Landis replied, “I was pretty confident after Stage 17, but anything can happen. I could have gotten a flat tire or another rider could have had a really good day.”

Two questions that have come up in other townhall meetings also came up at the Wilmette Theatre. First, one person asked whether the French had a problem with American riders winning the tour and whether Landis felt any bias while racing in France. Landis replied that he’s spent a number of years racing in France and never felt any bias — not on the part of the French people or French racers. “I’ve had wonderful experiences while racing in France and wonderful experiences with the French people,” Landis said.

Another questioner told Landis that if he could just hear Floyd say he hadn’t cheated that would be good enough for him. Landis replied, “I didn’t cheat and I’ve been saying that from the beginning. If that were good enough for the the panel of arbitrators it would be wonderful.”

When asked whether Jack Daniels would be sponsoring Landis in the future, Will Geoghegan responded that they had done some product testing in hopes of landing a sponsor. Landis chimed in, “I could use an alcohol sponsor. I sponsor Jack Daniel’s now.” And once the laughter in the room died down, he went on and asked, “Just to take a poll, how many people here, after they heard about the Jack Daniels went out and tried it for themselves?”

Prior to the townhall, Dr. Baker told reporters that what people need to know about Floyd Landis’ testosterone levels, as measured by LNDD, are that Landis’ absolute numbers were on the low end of normal. In other words, there was no excess testosterone in his system that could cause any sort of performance enhancement.

The hearings in the Landis case are slated to begin on May 14th at Pepperdine University and are expected to last about a week. In the meantime, Floyd Landis and his defense team continue to hone their arguments and build the case to exonerate Landis and enable him to return to the peloton.

Also on Landis’ schedule in the meantime is the Leadville 100 mountain bike race on August 17th. One reporter asked Landis about the race, to which Landis replied, “It seems like a reasonable goal and something to focus on. And it gives me a chance to return to my mountain biking roots.”

Floyd Landis and his defense team seem quietly confident that the outcome of his case will be in their favor. As more information comes out, the reasons for that confidence seem clearer.

A short auction followed the townhall meeting. Among the items auctioned, a yellow jersey signed by Landis went for $2000.

All in all, the Saturday townhall was estimated by one observer to have raised between $8,000 and $10,000. The Friday art auction was attended by about 200 – 300 people and raised an estimated $15,000. The Saturday evening dinner also raised an estimated $15,000 according to one person in attendance.

Links to videos of the slide show presentation and the question and answer session are available at Steroid Nation.